Overview
Great scientific and technological advances in the twentieth century enabled American farmers to produce bountiful harvests that ensured an abundant and relatively cheap food supply. But as farmers became more productive, surplus agricultural commodities, such as grain, milk, and cotton, drove prices down. With few exceptions, farmers found it difficult to earn an adequate standard of living. These are the fundamental developments that Douglas Hurt traces in Problems of Plenty, a compact narrative history of American agriculture over the last century. Mr. Hurt shows how farm men and women increasingly looked to the federal government—for technical information to help them become more productive and more profitable; for regulation of business practices to guarantee them equitable treatment in the marketplace; for intervention in the agricultural economy to support prices and protect their income. The course of farm policy is a basic theme in Mr. Hurt’s book. He surveys the major policy changes that helped shape farming both as a business and as a way of life. Perhaps inevitably, as he points out, farmers came to depend on the federal government for a wide variety of programs they eventually regarded as entitlements. But in return the farmers lost freedom of action, because the cost of participating in federal programs was compliance with a myriad of regulations that made the government an integral part of American agriculture. As the twentieth century ended, farmers remained divided over government’s role in their lives, just as they had been for most of the century.Synopsis
Hurt (history, Iowa State U.) has written widely about American agriculture, and directs a graduate program in agricultural history and rural studies. In this text, he provides a brief and broad survey of the major policy developments affecting farm men and women in the 20th century. His focus is on farmers who participated in government production-control programs, and how their dependency on the federal government was based on the government's power to regulate business, credit institutions, and corporations, and to design policies providing direct cash income to farmers for participating in a variety of programs. Academic, but accessible to the general reader. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
PETER A. COCLANIS
Problems of Plenty is the best history of twentieth-century American agriculture I've ever read....A fine, fine book.
Editorials
Choice Magazine
Hurt has produced a very solid, readable history.WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
...This book delivers a tightly woven description of 'commercially oriented farmers.MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
An intriguing discussion.JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN HISTORY
...Masterful history.... Elegantly written synthesis.... An essential reference work...DAVID DANBORN
Well-conceived and executed...especially strong on the ambivalent relationship between farmers and the federal government.—NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY
RICHARD S. KIRKENDALL
Packed with information and insights and emphasizing the many roles of the federal government.—PROFESSOR EMERITUS, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON